Avoid shutdown by answering these 4 Health and Safety questions about legal appointments

Did you know that an inspector from the Department of Labour can rock up on your doorstep, AT ANY TIME, and demand to inspect your premises?

That's right! It's completely your responsibility to provide a safe and healthy workplace for all of your employees. And if you fail to answer any of the inspector's questions, then you'll be in big trouble. In other words, he can SHUT DOWN your business!

So it's best to avoid any surprise questions.

Here are 4 questions the inspector can ask you (which you should be able to answer) regarding legal appointments...

Question#2: Is you ratio of health and safety representatives to employees correct?

For example, in a factory you require one health and safety representative for every 50 employees, and in other work environments you require one health and safety representative for every 100 employees in the workplace.

It's very important to note that, even if you have less than 20 employees in the workplace, and the health and safety inspector believes you should have one or more, then he has the power to tell you, in writing, to appoint more.

Recently, the Department of Labour (DoL) conducted over 190,000 impromptu health and safety inspections. It even shut down a company for failing to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).

By law, you MUST have a health and safety committee if you have two or more health and safety representatives.

Question#4: Are all your health and safety representative members of the health and safety committee?

At the end of the day, all health and safety representatives must automatically become members of the health and safety committee.

You DON'T have to appoint them separately from their appointment as a health and safety representative.

So those were 4 important health-and-safety questions, from the DoL inspector, which you MUST be able to answer when it comes to your legal appointments.

Make sure you can answer them in a compliant way, otherwise your business could be facing a shutdown.

*To learn more on DoL Inspector questions regarding the health and safety in your workplace, go to chapter D03: DoL Inspections: Questions an Inspector may ask you in your Health and Safety Advisor today.

DisclaimerCopyright 2017 Fleet Street Publications (Pty) Ltd. The information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. No action or inaction should be taken based solely on the contents of this publication. We do research all our recommendations and articles thoroughly, but we disclaim all liability for any inaccuracies or omissions found in this publication. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by means of electronic or mechanical, including recording , photocopying, or via a computerised or electric storage or retrieval system without permission granted in writing from the publishers.